Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Austrian airlines quits Azerbaijan

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian Airlines, Austria’s flag carrier and full-owned subsidiary of German Lufthansa, will stop flying to Azerbaijan from January 2016 because of low demand. With the termination of the Austrian Airlines route, there will be no more direct flights from Austria to Azerbaijan. Austrian Airlines told the Trend news agency it may consider resuming the air link in the future.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan’s ACG production drops

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP, the British operator of Azerbaijan’s largest oilfield, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), said in a statement that production in the first three-quarters of 2015 showed a decline of 2.4% compared to last year. ACG’s oil production is vital for the Azerbaijani economy. In the first nine months of this year, ACG averaged 640,000 barrels/day, against 655,700 barrels/day last year. Maintenance work in Q3 2015 slowed production.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank reserves drop

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to prop up its manat currency, Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it has spent nearly 60% of its currency reserves. Azerbaijan’s Central Bank held $6.8b at the end of October, down from $13.8b on Jan. 1. Azerbaijan devalued the manat by a third in February but this hasn’t stopped the slide.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Arianespace sends Azerbaijan’s satellite

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Arianespace, the French launch service provider, will send Azerbaijan’s second satellite into space from its launch site in French Guiana, Elmir Velizade, deputy minister of communications, said at a press conference. The national space agency Azercosmos launched its first satellite with Arianespace in 2013. The new Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 satellite will be put into orbit in 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijani company wants partners for Greek distributor deal

DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s energy company, has to sell a 17% stake in the Greek gas distributor DESFA by the end of June 2016 to comply with EU ownership regulations, media quoted the Greek authorities as saying.SOCAR bought a 66% stake in DESFA in 2013 although the European Commission later said that under 2009 rules it had to bring its stake in DESFA down to 49%. Belgium’s Fluxys and Spain’s Enagas have submitted a joint offer for the stake. Italy’s Snam has also said it would be interested in buying it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Azerbaijani security forces arrest 19 men

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani security forces arrested 19 people during an operation in a Baku suburb which they said was designed to root out terrorists.

Tension is running high in the suburb of Nardaran. Last week six people died, two policemen and four gang members, during a shoot-out between the security forces and a group they said had been plotting a series of attacks.

Witnesses to the operation this week said that armed police surrounded Nardaran and moved in with armoured cars. Photos also showed Nardaran residents burning tyres and stockpiling stones ahead of the police operation. There were no reports, though, of fighting.

Azerbaijan is formally a secular country although the majority of the population are Shia Muslims. Nard- aran is one of the most conservative areas in the country, a place where most women wear head scarves. Head scarves have been banned at schools in Azerbaijan but they are still a common sight in Nardaran.

Azerbaijan’s pious Shia community often turns to Iran for support and state-linked media in Tehran has been reporting on the Azerbaijani security forces’ operations in Nardaran. It described the operation as the start of another crackdown on the Shia community.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have been improving over the past few years. The security force’s action in Nardaran this week and the violence last week threatens to undo some of this improvement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Fire breaks out on Azerbaijani oil rig

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least one person has died and another 29 people are missing after an oil platform in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea caught fire.The platform is part of the Gunehsli field which is operated by BP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Business comment: Transit rush in Eurasia

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — From Iran to Lithuania, several countries have tried to impose their agenda to lay out transit routes across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Iran, which will soon be no longer cut off from international trade by Western sanctions, said it wants to become a road and rail transport link between Pakistan and the South Caucasus.

The link, which would run through Afghanistan and Tajikistan, would also connect Central Asia to Azerbaijan, said Iranian minister of roads and urban development Abbas Akhoundi.

In Klaipeda, Lithuania, thousands of kilometres away from the region, representatives from Lithuanian, Kazakh and Georgian railway and maritime companies met with large transport companies — among which were Britain-based DBSchenker and Germany-based InterRail Logistics — to design a China-Europe Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

Georgia and Turkey also want to be included in the project, which could compete with the EU- sponsored TRACECA corridors spanning from Central Asia to Europe and the Beijing-funded One

Belt One Road project from Eastern China to Western Europe.

In addition, because of the recent diplomatic row between Russia and Turkey, Azerbaijan has come forward and said it wants to become the transport hub for Turkish goods to Central Asia.

The growing links across the region will improve connectivity and cut back on transport times for westbound goods from China, South and Central Asia.

And its worth keeping in mind that stresses caused by the Russia- Turkey row may create opportunities for new trade routes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan’s president prepares economy for sustained downturn

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev appeared to be preparing his country for a prolonged economic slump when he ordered the government to triple the amount of debt that it could take on.

He also told the Central Bank that it had to increase the amount of capital that it holds to 500m manat ($478m) up from 10m manat.

Both orders appear to be designed to preempt a sustained economic slowdown. The increase in the amount of debt that the Azerbaijani government can accrue to 4.5b manat and the rise in the Central Bank’s working capital should soften the impact of oil prices staying low.

Like the rest of the region Azerbaijan is trying to cope with a collapse in oil prices.

The price of a barrel of oil has more than halved in the past year. For Azerbaijan, whose economy is reliant on oil sales, the impact has been heavy. It has cut its budget and dropped various infrastructure projects to save cash.

Last week a fire at an internet data centre knocked Azerbaijan off the World Wide Web, highlighting just how fragile and investment-needy some of Azerbaijan’s infrastructure it.

In June, the IMF said Azerbaijan’s economy would grow by only 1.8% this year, a sharp fall from the rapid growth of a few years ago. It also said there would be sluggish growth until 2020. Mr Aliyev’s orders appear to confirm this view.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Azerbaijan says to help Turkey-Russia row

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Azerbaijani government said that it is willing to be involved in an effort to reconcile Turkey and Russia after a Turkish warplane shot down a Russian fighter-jet over Syria earlier this month. Azerbaijan counts both Turkey and Russia as its two closest allies. Worsening relations between Turkey and Russia could potentially be a problem for Azerbaijan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)